


The Long Game

by PenguinofProse



Series: Season 7 speculation [8]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Amnesia, Episode 7.09: The Flock, F/F, S7 speculation, Spy!Echo, double agent Echo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:47:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25737514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PenguinofProse/pseuds/PenguinofProse
Summary: What's Echo up to in 7.09? Does she really intend to send Hope to Penance or is she playing the long game?
Relationships: Echo/Hope Diyoza
Series: Season 7 speculation [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1783594
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	The Long Game

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm seriously hoping that tonight's episode will show us that Echo is actually playing double agent and hasn't really turned against Hope. And that there will be a beautiful Echope happy ending and everything will be lovely. This picks up at the beginning of 7.09.
> 
> As ever, if you're not an Echo fan, please don't read this and then leave negative comments. Please go find something else more to your tastes instead - there are loads of great fics out there! Happy reading!

Echo is familiar with the concept of _the long game_.

As a woman who's been living someone else's life for the better part of thirty years, she's no stranger to deep cover. In fact, now she thinks about it, almost her entire life has been one desperate, protracted mission. So she ought to know what she's doing, here. She knows how to play her part.

But she gets the distinct impression that the people of Bardo are not here to play games.

They mean business. It's evident in everything they do and say, from the eerie chanting to the serious technology incorporated into their uniforms.

So the only way Echo has any chance of getting the people she loves out of here safely is to play the long game to perfection.

…....

She starts as she means to go on. She puts her poker face on, that very first morning, almost like lacing into a winter jacket at the end of a glorious summer. There must be no more showing her heart in her eyes, now. There must be no more laughter, no move overt joy of the kind she got used to on Skyring.

No more gazing at Hope, permitting herself the occasional moment of weakness.

Composed and ready, she steps out of her new room.

Hope is right outside, which almost throws her off her game right from the start. It honestly looks like she was coming here to knock on Echo's door and walk her to their first training session, which has an easy smile just begging to break out over Echo's face.

But that can't be allowed, now, so she restricts herself to a brisk nod.

“Morning, Hope. Let's go.” Hope looks startled by the unfamiliar tone, but that's fine, Echo tells herself. If she's going to pull this off, she needs to fool everyone – even the people closest to her.

Even the person she loves the most.

It's easier to admit that to herself, now that Bellamy's dead. It was a struggle, all those years on Skyring, not to do anything rash and act on her feelings for Hope. But with Bellamy gone there is nothing stopping her from admitting to herself where her heart now lies.

It's just a shame she has a mission to prioritise, right now.

Hope seems to have recovered from the shock of Echo's cold greeting and starts to speak. “Are you OK? What is it?”

“I'm fine. Ready to begin training.”

“Are you sure you're doing alright? If this is about Bellamy we can talk.”

Damn her for making this so difficult. The very fact that she doesn't seem to understand what Echo is doing proves that it is all the more necessary, she decides. Hope is sweet, and good, and just a little naive.

Echo must protect her at all costs.

So it is that she keeps her silence, and strides on down the hallway.

…....

It's a long morning. They follow Anders like obedient sheep, learn about unbreathable air and an unwinnable war.

These people do spend a lot of time going on about what can't be done, Echo muses. After a life as an Azgeda spy wearing the wrong name, who made it to space and then fled across the skies, she tends to think that _impossible_ is not a very useful word.

But these disciples seem to live by it, so she sucks it up and keeps her counsel, because that's how you win the long game.

…....

Echo's first thought when she finds herself in a snowy forest is that this must be a simulation.

Her second thought is that it's not a very good one.

When they warned her about those simulator tests, she thought they would be difficult. She expected choices of real emotional difficulty – Hope or Bellamy set against her new loyalty to Bardo, for example. And she expected high stakes and bloodshed, like the horrifically real tests Queen Nia used to present her with when she was a girl.

Clearly she has done an even better job of hiding her heart from these strangers than she thought she had, based on what they have decided to give her instead. She's in the forest on Azgeda land. She recognises this clearing from long ago, before the Earth burned. And in front of her stands Roan, stern-faced and disapproving. That's a pretty standard look for Roan, so it ought to make the simulation more convincing. But it doesn't, somehow, because his mouth is twisted into too much of a frown rather than his usual unimpressed expression. It's like he's a caricature of his real self, she thinks. Clearly the folks on Bardo are not good at building simulated people from the memories they take from MCAP. She files that away as a little tip to help her out with passing these simulator tests another day.

Roan wastes no time in getting started.

“I'm disappointed in you, Echo.”

Yeah, that's not unusual. She just nods.

“I thought I meant more to you than this. I thought you would never betray me.”

Anyone who's ever met Roan in real life would know this is complete and utter fiction right away, she thinks.

“You must make a choice. Me or your people.” He says, scathing, as Anders walks onto the scene dressed in white.

Well, now. That's an easy decision. Personal loyalty to Roan never earned her anything other than exclusion and heartbreak. And in fact, she seems to recall she has chosen their people over him a number of times before.

She chooses Anders, as she does it with good grace, because that's how to play this game.

…....

Echo's relationship with Hope isn't in a great place at the minute. That's hardly surprising, of course, given the choices Echo is making and the effort she is putting into creating the appearance of emotional distance between herself and the people – or person – she loves the most.

So it is that Echo is pleasantly surprised when Hope knocks on her bedroom door tonight. Pleasantly surprised, that is, until she remembers that she needs to learn not to look pleased to see Hope. If she's going to convince the regime here on Bardo that she has abandoned love, she cannot be caught greeting her with warmth.

“What are you doing here?” Echo asks, trying to sound cold and more or less succeeding. Her poker face used to be better than this, she's pretty sure, back when she was a spy.

“I need to talk to you.” Hope hisses, striding into the room without waiting for permission.

Echo doesn't sigh in disappointment. Obviously she doesn't. She's a seasoned operative and far too self-possessed to go and feel _disappointed_ at Hope's angry tone.

OK, she does feel a little disappointed. Some tiny, inappropriately naive part of her was hoping this might be a _romantic_ evening bedroom visit, rather than an argument brewing.

She brushes that thought aside through sheer force of will. “So talk.” She invites Hope, tone still cold.

For a moment, Hope hesitates, frowning hard. And then she opens her mouth, and all at once, words are spilling out of her, fast and frantic.

“I don't understand you, Echo. I don't understand how you've just – _flipped_ like this. What happened to the woman who used to joke about jellyfish, huh? What happened to cutting each other's hair and swimming in the lake?”

“We're not on Skyring any more.” She offers, toneless.

“And that's another thing – stop patronising me. I'm not a _child_ , Echo. I'm almost as old as you are. And the way you keep _babying_ me in training sessions – I can stand up without your help, you know. The way you're always watching me, like you're just waiting for me to screw up so you can bail me out.”

“That's not why I'm watching you.” She admits, although it's probably a mistake to do so.

That stops Hope abruptly, her rant running out of steam as she stands there, gulping stupidly at thin air for a moment or two.

When she does speak again, her voice is quieter, less angry, more _wobbly_.

“Why did you interrupt when Anders was talking about Dev?”

Echo answers the question honestly. She knows she will regret it later, that if Anders gets wind of it her perfect score will be destroyed, but she cannot bring herself to look Hope in the eyes and lie to her. “Because I don't want you to get in trouble, Hope. You need to assimilate to this new society. It's dangerous to stand out. That morning Anders took us to the children's lesson – I swear I spent the whole day worrying you were going to get yourself killed.”

That was the wrong thing to say, it turns out. That becomes quite clear when Hope's eyes narrow, and her frown deepens, and she starts spewing out angry words once more.

“I can take care of myself, Echo. I don't want your help. Not now – not when I hardly _recognise_ you recently.”

With that, she storms out of the room. And Echo realises, rather abruptly, that she is never coming back. That there will never be that more romantic night-time visit, and that she has well and truly burned her bridges with Hope.

But as long as she's safe, that's OK. As long as Hope doesn't get herself killed, Echo can live with that.

…....

It's a lonely life, being a soulless warrior.

Echo had forgotten that, during those five years on Skyring. She forgot a lot of things in that time, it occurs to her. She can't precisely remember Bellamy's laugh, but that's probably because he was only ever much good at laughing when Clarke was around.

She misses him. But she misses Hope more, which is stupid, because Hope's alive and her room is only five doors down the hallway.

But she can't go and visit her. That's not a thing they do any more. And she cannot be the one who caves and initiates a visit, because she needs the rulers of Bardo to think that her bonds are well and truly broken.

She stares at the ceiling, and steels herself not to cry.

…....

Echo knows that this is a simulator test the moment Hope walks into her bedroom. They don't hang out any more, after all, and she's pretty certain that she's the last person Hope would invite on a sabotage mission, just now. So it is that she throws the knife at Hope's throat and passes the test with flying colours.

The minutes immediately after waking up, however, are harder to get through. Hope is right there, and within moments she will know that Echo was prepared to kill her to pass the test. She won't stop to consider that it was a simulation, Echo knows. No – Hope will jump straight to a hurt emotional overreaction.

It seems like big-hearted and prone to emotional foolishness is her type, she muses sadly.

She stops thinking about that all of a sudden when it turns out that Hope has failed the test. She wonders about saying something encouraging, but she can't be seen to still feel sympathy for Hope. She needs to say something, though, she figures. Hope must be feeling pretty lonely right now, knowing that the people she loves are knifing her in the neck, even if only in their minds. And Echo wouldn't wish that kind of loneliness on Hope, not now she has remembered for herself how much it sucks to be all alone.

She doesn't say anything in front of Levitt, in the end. She waits until they are out of the room and striding down the hallway to the canteen.

“Go on then.” Hope mutters, out of the blue, tone challenging.

“What do you mean?”

“Tell me how disappointed you are. Tell me I failed. Tell me you always knew I would.”

Echo hesitates. She wants Hope to know she's loved, but she also wants to keep her own cover well enough to protect her. This requires a very precisely worded answer, she thinks.

“You're an exceptional woman. I don't _expect_ failure from you. You have the abilities to do very well here on Bardo.” She swallows. That sounded soulless, and not at all like the kind of encouragement Hope must need right now.

Sure enough, Hope snorts. “Thanks for nothing, Echo. You know, I thought you actually cared. I thought you -”

“I _care_ about keeping us safe.” She hisses, so quietly that surely no one can have overheard.

Then she takes a risk – possibly the greatest risk she has ever taken. Under the cover of tripping over her own feet, she lurches sideways into Hope, takes her hand as discreetly as possible. She squeezes her fingers, just once, so fleeting that it is over almost before she has begun.

And then she straightens up, and keeps striding down the corridor. No one saw that, she's certain of it. Even if there are cameras in this hallway, they will not have caught anything useful.

No one will ever know what just happened except the two of them. Just Echo, whose fingers will be tingling for the rest of the day, she's pretty sure, and Hope, who's suddenly looking at her with confusion rather than outright rage.

…....

Echo doesn't really intend to send Hope to Penance for five years. Obviously she doesn't – the fact that Hope looks so alarmed, that she genuinely seems to think it is true, hurts like a punch to the guts. It's all Echo can do to keep a blank look on her face as she passes her sentence and waits for the initiation ceremony to be over.

The second Anders is done speaking, she makes a break for it. It's time to call in some of her cards and make a move. There's no point playing a double game if she doesn't act in situations like this and protect Hope in whatever way she can.

She starts with Gabriel. She trusts him.

“We're sending her to Sanctum.” Echo whispers, under the cover of dropping her lunch at Gabriel's feet and scrabbling to pick it up.

“She'll forget everything.”

“I don't care. She'll be safe. You can do it? You'll operate the stone?”

“I've got the stone. You get the guards.”

“Don't be late.”

With that, she reassembles her tray and leaves.

…....

Echo doesn't go to visit Hope the evening before her sentence is due to be carried out. There's no point – they don't visit each other in the evenings any more.

She stares at the ceiling and reflects on her loneliness. She's been doing that a lot, recently.

…....

Echo has a plan, more or less. She's got herself assigned to the guard shift in the stone room on the morning Hope is to be sent to Penance. She's going to create a diversion, something that seems innocent such as faking a medical emergency. Then Gabriel will set the stone to Sanctum and send Hope through. Simple.

She ought to be safe in Sanctum, Echo thinks. Sure, it hurts to think about the fact that Hope will forget the five years they lived together. But at least Emori and Murphy will look out for her with any luck.

Yeah, luck isn't usually on her side.

She reports for her shift at the stone room. She counts down the minutes until Hope's appointed departure time.

And then Hope walks into the room.

She looks devastated – absolutely _betrayed_ – and Echo supposes that she cannot blame her. She brushes that thought aside, concentrates on her task. She needs to create that diversion.

At that exact second, Hope starts a fight. She headbutts the nearest guard so hard he staggers backwards, and Echo has to stifle a grin at her perfect timing. Even when they're at odds, it seems, they cannot help but move in sync.

She joins the fray right away, grateful for the chaos Hope has caused. There are fists flying everywhere, guards getting out their shock batons. For a fight which is essentially four against one, Hope is doing pretty well, really. Echo sets about her with a shock baton, too, making sure to catch her fellow guards often and Hope not at all, but trying to make it look accidental.

When most of the guards are reeling and the chaos is at its height, Echo turns and meets Gabriel's eye.

“Get her out of here.” Echo yells, above the noise. “Set the stone! Get her to Penance before she hurts someone!”

She'd laugh if the situation wasn't so serious, she thinks. For all their talk of the _last war_ , these guards have just been outmanoeuvred and outfought by three ill-equipped newcomers.

As it is, she cannot laugh. She simply restrains Hope and drags her towards the stone.

“It's set for Sanctum.” She whispers in her ear. She wonders about adding something else – some words of love or of apology, perhaps, or at least a good luck wish.

Hope freezes. She struggles, strong but not strong enough. “I won't remember you.” She protests, her words rather too loud given the cluster of guards stirring behind them.

Echo doesn't reply. If she tries to speak now, she will simply weep, and her cover will be blown. She clenches her jaw tight and shoves Hope into the Bridge.

…....

It takes a while to win the last war. When it is done, Echo and Octavia and Clarke and the others leave Bardo and head back to Sanctum.

Because of the time dilation, Hope has only been there a couple of hours when they arrive. She's been getting to know Emori, it turns out, who was only too willing to welcome the friend of the sister of a friend.

Echo hangs back while Hope is reunited with her mother and with Octavia. It wouldn't do to intrude on their family reunion, not when she is barely a tenuous family friend, at this point, since Hope has lost her memories.

At last, Octavia draws back from the hug and beckons Echo over.

“Hope? Do you remember Echo?” She asks.

Hope frowns. “Bellamy's girlfriend, right? We met in the forest the day I tagged Octavia.”

Echo smiles a sad smile. “I'm not Bellamy's girlfriend any more.”

“Right. Yes, sorry. Octavia told me – I'm sorry for your loss.”

Echo swallows. “It was a while ago for me, now.”

“Yes. Octavia explained that I spent some time on Bardo before I came back here and lost my memories? And you guys stayed there longer?”

“Yeah. That's right.” Echo agrees, because that seems easier than falling apart over the fact that the woman she loves barely even recognises her and is learning about their lives from Octavia and not from her.

Octavia speaks up again. “You and Echo were close friends, before you lost your memories.”

“We were?” Hope looks positively shocked, and that hurts.

Echo tries for a carefree shrug, but it doesn't come out right. “Yeah. We lived together on Skyring for five years. We – yeah – we were close.”

“I'm sorry I don't remember that.”

“Don't be.” Echo hesitates. She didn't plan on saying this in front of Octavia, but she figures the sooner she gets it over with, the better. “It was actually me that sent you back here. I knew you'd lose your memory but – I wanted you to be safe. So it's me who should be sorry that you don't remember anything.”

She stares at the floor, tries to keep that poker face in place. She's expecting anger from Hope, here – anyone would be angry, she thinks, to find out that she had knowingly cost them all those years of memories.

It would be fair to say that she's shocked when she gets a hug instead. It's not the closest or longest hug in the world, but that's fair enough, she figures. From where Hope is sitting, she is still more or less a stranger. And any hug at all is a lot better than what she was expecting.

“You must have really cared about me.” Hope suggests quietly, as she pulls away.

“Yeah.” She'd like to say more, but the words stick in her throat.

“We should catch up. You could tell me about Skyring.” Hope offers haltingly. “I want to know what I've missed.”

“I'd like that.”

It's not a magic wand to wave and restore Hope's memories, because that doesn't exist even with all the serious technology of Bardo. It's not even a promise that things will turn out for the best, because Echo has learnt the hard way that promises made about the future tend to come to nothing.

But it's a start, and a start is more than good enough. Hope's alive – that's what matters. And as for the rest? Well, Echo is patient. She's something of an expert when it comes to playing the long game.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
